Polling held in 7 seats in Assam, Manipur and Tripura amid tight security

Guwahati: Polling for seven constituencies across north-east India, including five in Assam and one each in Manipur and Tripura, were held on Friday amid tight security arrangements in Manipur which witnessed incidents of violence and rigging in the first phase of polling.

The polling percentage across the region, stood at with Assam recording 60.32 percent, Manipur at 68.42 percent, and Tripura leading with 68.92 percent.

People were seen queuing up outside polling stations more than an hour ahead of the official time for the start of polling at 7 am in Assam. Voting came to an end at 5 pm, but is expected to go on for 2-3 hours more as the voters who reached polling stations before 5pm were allowed to cast their ballot.

To ensure smooth and peaceful voting, the election commission had deployed 143 companies of security forces in the north-eastern seats.

It is significant that in Assam the role of Muslim voters, who are dominant in Nagaon and Karimganj, and are in sizable numbers in Silchar and Darrang-Udalguri, was crucial in this phase. In 2019, four of these five seats were won by BJP while Congress had won from Nagaon.

In Nagaon, sitting Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi is facing a tough contest from BJP’s Suresh Bora, who switched over to BJP from the Congress. Aminul Islam of All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), who is the sitting MLA from Dhing, has made this seat a triangular contest.

There are 24 candidates in Karimganj, which was a SC reserved seat earlier, but is now in the general category. Darrang-Udalguri has 8 candidates, including sitting BJP MP Dilip Saikia. Silchar also has 8 candidates and 5 candidates in Diphu.

In the wake of fluid law and order conditions in Manipur, the election commission had beefed up the security arrangement in the second phase of polling. However there were incidents of clashes between the two rival groups in Ukhrul. Security sources said that security forces succeeded in defusing the situation by proactive intervention.

In the first phase there were Incidents of violence including firing, threats to voters, damage to EVMs and alleged rigging at several booths forcing re-polling at many places. Officials said that 87 companies of central armed security forces have been deployed in addition to around 4,000 state police personnel to ensure law and order. Around 3,400 polling personnel are on duty in the second phase.

Four candidates are in the fray for polling to a portion of the Outer Manipur seat, which is reserved for Scheduled Tribe candidates. There are over 4 lakh voters in the 13 assembly segments where voting took place on Friday.

“There will be 848 polling stations and an additional 9 special polling stations for people displaced by the ethnic violence in the state. There are 529 internally displaced voters in the second phase,” said chief electoral officer Pradeep Kumar Jha.

In Tripura, polling was held for East Tripura constituency in the second phase.

Though nine candidates are in fray in this constituency, the main contest was expected between the ruling BJP candidate Kriti Devi Debbarma and opposition INDIA alliance candidate and former CPI(M) MLA Rajendra Reang. Kriti Devi is the youngest daughter of the late Kirit Bikram Kishore Manikya and elder sister of TIPRA Motha party founder Pradyot Kishore Manikya.

For the first time, the newly settled Bru voters of Tripura exercised their franchise for the General Elections to Lok Sabha on Friday. Earlier, they had voted in the assembly elections held last year in March. The Bru migrants who had been staying in six relief camps of North Tripura district till 2020 now received permanent settlement in 12 locations across the state.

Since morning, eligible voters from the Bru community turned up in large numbers at the polling stations.